


oh, and i'm on my way to believing

by wafflesofdoom



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Established Relationship, Family, Fluff, M/M, Panic Attacks (mentioned), Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-09-02 15:16:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8672344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflesofdoom/pseuds/wafflesofdoom
Summary: five glimpses into aaron and robert's relationship that chas gets during their first few months living together that convince her robert sugden isn't all that bad.





	

**Author's Note:**

> brief mention of a a panic attack in this if you find that sort of thing triggering - it's not descriptive, its seen through a closed door, essentially.

**i. the panic attack**

 

 

Chas heard low voices coming from Aaron’s room as she got up to use the bathroom, raising an eyebrow at the time. It was nearly four am, definitely a bit late to be up considering they both had work the next morning.

She was about to roll her eyes and move on when she heard a soft, tiny sob. Chas moved toward her son’s bedroom door, pausing before she knocked.

“Aaron, Aaron - it’s okay. Focus on me, alright? Breathe with me.”

“I c-can’t -“

“Aaron, I know this is scary, but its just a panic attack. You’ll get through it if you just focus on me, and breathe.” Robert was speaking in a low, calm voice, trying his best to soothe Aaron. “In, out. In, out.”

There was a few more seconds of this before Aaron seemed to calm down slightly.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what? You had a panic attack, it’s hardly your fault.”

“I had a nightmare.” Aaron admitted. “He, he -“

“You don’t have to tell me about it.” Robert seemed to recognise the panic in Aaron’s voice. “Okay? I’m here. It’s just you and me.”

“Okay.”

There was a second’s silence. 

“I love you, Aaron. It’s going to be okay.”

Chas took this as her cue to move away, tiptoeing back down the hallway toward her own room. She worried about Aaron - how could she not, she was his mother? - and she worried about him even more now the trial was over and Gordon was dead, but it eased her mind slightly to know that Robert was there to help him through it all.

Robert Sugden, putting her mind at ease - if this wasn’t a moment for the history books. 

 

 

**ii.** **the lockscreen**

 

 

“Aaron!” Chas hollered in the direction of the stairs, recognising Aaron’s ringtone, glancing at the phone sitting not the bookshelf. “Your phone is ringing! Its a withheld number though, don’t know who it is.” 

Looking at the phone again, Chas couldn’t help but smirk. Aaron’s lockscreen used to be a picture of Leo playing in Paddy and Rhona’s front garden, but it had changed recently - to a picture of Robert. 

The blonde man looked half asleep in the picture, curled up on pillows Chas knew weren’t the god-awful purple ones in Aaron’s bedroom - it must have been from when they went to Wales together, a genuine smile on Robert’s face, softening his normally unreadable features. He looked like the sort of person you could be madly in love with, not like the Robert she thought she knew. 

Aaron thundered down the stairs in his pyjamas, grabbing the phone the second it stopped ringing. “Mum! You could have answered it.”

“I’m not answering your phone, you’d only bite the head off me!” Chas rolled her eyes. She’d answered Aaron’s phone for him once, and they hadn’t spoken for about a week afterward - she’d learned her lesson.

Aaron was squinting at his phone screen, trying to figure out the number.

“Nice photo by the way.” Chas teased, nodding toward Aaron’s phone. 

Aaron’s cheeks turned bright red, and he shook his head. “You’re the worst, you know that?”

Chas kissed his cheek with a bright grin. “I’m just glad you’re happy, love. Cuppa?”

“Nah, I’m alright ta, Robert and I are going to head into Hotten for some lunch..” Aaron locked his phone, clearly taking a second to glance at the photograph. “Liv’s at Gabby’s, but…”

“No guarantee that doesn’t mean trouble. I’ll look out for her, go and enjoy your day out.”

Aaron gave her a grateful smile. “Thanks mum.”

 

 

 

**iii. the phonecall**

 

 

Chas paused at the door as she heard Robert’s voice. He was on a job in Leeds last she knew, so she was surprised to hear him in the backroom of the pub so early. 

“I just nipped back for some lunch.” Robert said. “And to make sure Liv wasn’t hiding out here instead of being in school.”

There was a silence where Chas assumed Aaron replied.

“She’s been good. Mostly down to your mum not taking her shit more than me trying to be strict though, to be fair.” 

Chas smirked. Robert, for all his talk, was terrible at being the strict one. He’d put his hands on his hips and give Liv his best ‘do what I say or else’ look, which she would then ignore and proceed to do whatever she wanted anyway.

“How’s France?”

Aaron had been gone a week already, and the most Chas had gotten from him during their very few phonecalls was ‘ya’ ‘it’s fine’ ‘don’t murder Robert, please’ and ‘is Liv wrecking your head yet?’

Aaron was a man of few words sometimes.

“I wish I was there with you.” Robert said. “We could have gone to Paris or summat.”

Chas smiled. Aaron, in Paris?

“Don’t laugh at me! It’d be fun. It’s a great city.”

Another pause.

“Yeah, well, maybe I will take you there someday Dingle.” Chas could practically _hear_ the smile on Robert’s face. “I miss ya. It’s really quiet around here without you.”

Chas put her hand on the door handle, knowing she would get caught listening in if she stood out here any longer. Giving Robert a genuine smile, Chas proceeded to cross the room and flick the kettle on.

“Alright, I’ll talk to you later so.” Robert said, perched on the arm of the couch. “Love you. Bye.”

“That Aaron?” Chas feigned ignorance.

Robert nodded. “He’s got a few meetings on today, says his French is as shocking as ever.”

“I don’t think the Yorkshire accent was made for speaking French.” Chas said, laughing. “Cuppa?”

Robert looked at his watch. “I should probably get back to work.”

“Have one for the road.” Chas decided for him, dumping a tea-bag in a cup. She wasn’t sure when she learned exactly how Robert liked his tea - sometime around when he figured out how to make her perfect cuppa, she supposed. “Weird without him around, isn’t it?”

Robert nodded, handing her the milk. “Yeah, it is.”

 

 

**iv. the laughter**

 

 

Chas paused on the landing as she heard voices drifting from Aaron’s room. Aaron and Robert’s room, she supposed - she still wasn’t quite used to Robert being her son’s live in boyfriend, even if it had been months at this stage.

“Are you serious? You iron your jeans?”

Chas smirked at Aaron’s incredulous question. Aaron just about ran an iron over a shirt if he had to wear one, oblivious to the wrinkles in his t-shirts and hoodies as he went about his daily life.

Since Robert had moved in, he’d taken up practically permanent residence at the ironing board, meticulous about how his clothes looked. 

“Of _course_ I iron my jeans Aaron, why wouldn’t I?”

“Because they're jeans, innit? The wrinkles fall out when you wear them.” 

Robert laughed. “Aaron, thats not how it works. You’re such a little scruff.”

“You’re such a ponce, you know that?” Aaron retorted. 

“You love it.”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” Aaron said. “Why are you makin’ such a fuss about the sheets, Robert? We’re going to be sleeping in it anyway.”

“Its nice to have a nice bed!” Robert responded.

“You’re such a fusspot.”

“I’m neat Aaron, theres a difference.”

“You’re gonna drive me demented when we actually have a place of our own, aren’t ya? Oh, Aaron, don’t leave your cups lying about, Aaron could you iron the pillowcases please, Aaron - _stop_ , get off!” 

Aaron’s laughter filled the upstairs landing. “Robert, stop it!” He snorted. “I hate when you do that, stop it.”

“Stop what?” Robert was laughing too. “Doing this?”

“Rob, I’m not a kid, don’t tickle me! I mean it, get off!” 

Chas shook her head. It was hard to take Aaron seriously when he was laughing the way he was, real, genuine laughter that broke the silence of the afternoon. She hadn’t heard her son laugh like that in a long time.

Washing basket in hand, she continued on her way, popping her head in the open door of their bedroom. Robert had his arms around Aaron, her son’s armpits clamped down in an attempt to stop his boyfriend from tickling him.

“You left this downstairs.” Chas offered, setting the empty basket down on the carpet. The sheets were half on, half off their bed, the shockingly purple colour still something Chas wasn’t used to.

“Thanks mum.” Aaron said, trying to wriggle out of Robert’s grasp, the blonde man holding tighter. 

“Thanks Chas.” Robert echoed.

Chas shook her head, leaving them to their antics. However she felt about Robert, it was good to hear Aaron laugh the way he was - like he really, truly meant it. 

 

 

**v. the moment she shouldn’t have overheard**

 

 

Chas had nipped to the bathroom in the hospital, conscious of the long drive back to Emmerdale she had that evening. Liv had been taken home by Victoria earlier that evening, Robert’s sister promising to take care of her tea and make sure she got some sleep. 

Chas adored Vic. Without a doubt, the kind hearted young woman was the best out of the Sugden lot - she loved like it was the one thing she was put on earth to do, and Chas would always have time for her.

She paused outside her son’s hospital room, Robert’s voice catching her attention. Robert had been on edge all day, his emotions right on display. It was so unlike him, she was so used to Robert being a closed book that she’d been somewhat shocked by his openness, his tears. 

Robert had been inconsolable when Aaron had gone into cardiac arrest. Victoria had eventually managed to drag her brother to an uncomfortable hospital chair and hug him tightly until his tears had subsided and his breathing had steadied, Chas watching with a panicked Liv in her arms.

“Please, Aaron. You’ve got to pull through this.”

Chas could see her son’s boyfriend (fiancé now, she supposed) through the small pane of glass. He was holding tightly to Aaron’s hand, resting his elbows on the starchy hospital sheets. 

Robert wiped roughly at his face, his eyes red raw from crying. 

“Aaron, please. You can’t leave me like this, eh?” 

_It’ll be touch and go for the next few hours,_ doctors had said. 

“It’d be just like you to say yes to marrying me and then go have a heart attack.” Robert murmured, a soft smile appearing on his face for a split second. “I can’t wait to marry ya, Aaron, so you've got to pull through this and be right as rain, alright? Because I want to be your husband, and I want to spend the rest of my life with ya, and - God, I’m sorry, I’m sorry I wasted so much time trying to figure my head out. I wish - every day, I wish I’d listened to you and not gotten married, because thats time I wasted when I could have been with you.”

Chas knew she should step away and leave Robert to it, but she couldn’t drag herself away from the scene in front of her.

“I love you. More than I’ve ever loved anyone in my entire life.” Robert said, grazing his lips against the back of Aaron’s hand. “You make me better, Aaron, and I don’t want to see what I’ll turn in to if I haven’t got ya around to keep me in check. I’d go mad without you, I really would. So lets not have to find out, eh? Just pull through the next few hours and be okay. For me. For your mum and Liv. There are so many people in your life who can’t live without you, and - maybe I’m being selfish here - but I love you most of all and I can’t lose you. So just be okay Aaron, yeah? Just be okay for me.”

Robert stopped talking, a sob ripping through his body.

Unsure of what she was even going to say, Chas pushed into the hospital room, reaching out for Robert. He looked confused for a second before allowing Chas to hug him, Chas running her hand through his hair in a vaguely motherly manner, trying to ssh Robert’s cries.

“He won’t leave you.” Chas said. “He’s stubborn, and he loves the bones of ya, so he’ll be fine. You hear me? He’ll be fine.”

Robert nodded. “Yeah.”

“Get some sleep Robert, eh? You’re no use to him if you’re dead on your feet.” Chas gestured toward the blankets a nurse had brought in to him earlier, realising she was fighting a losing battle trying to make Robert go home.

“Thanks Chas.”

“Thank you, Robert. For loving him the way he deserves, even after everything.”

“I always will.”

And for the first time, Chas believed every word that came out of her future son in laws mouth.

 

** fin **

**Author's Note:**

> i'm not usually the type to upload this often, but it seems all my fic seemed to finish at the same time this weekend (nothing to do with the mountain of university work i'm avoiding, oh no.)
> 
> i've wanted to write a fic like this from chas' point of view for ages (because i love her) and because i think it'd be interesting to see how she actually views the boys relationship these days. hope you enjoyed!


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